Windows 10: I tried to install Win11 on my new NVMe, but failed until I moved it to slot M 2_2 of my...

I just assembled a new PC with the following setup:Motherboard Asus z790 A wifiCPU Intel i7 13700kfSSD nvme 980 pro M.2GPU Nvidia RTX 3080I installed the SSD on the M.2_1 slot, the one connected to the CPU. The MB detected the SSD in the BIOS, however it listed it as "RAID" in the "ez mode" view. I could not find any other information in the advanced tab.I then tried installing windows 11 on it and it did not allow me to. I then used Gparted to create a GPT partition table, and that did not work either. I tried several method but it seemed like the SSD was faulty.However, I tried moving it to

:)

 

Cannot boot windows 10 SSD after having installed Windows 11

1. Took original 512GB NVMe SSD with windows 10 install out of M.2_1 slot
   
2. Installed a 4TB NVMe SSD into M.2_1 slot
   
3. Installed Windows 11 from iso (using Ventoy)
   
4. Installed another new 2TB NVMe SSD into M.2_2 slot
   
5. Plugged original 512GB NVMe SSD into a USB3 NVMe/NGFF adapter. It shows as a JMicron adapter.
   
6. Booted to Clonezilla iso (using Ventoy)
   
7. Followed instructions in Clonezilla and cloned contents of 512GB SSD to 2TB SSD
   

Now, regardless of Custom Lithium Ion Battery Pack Manufacturer being enabled in the motherboard's UEFI settings:

• 2TB drive won't boot, with a 0xc000000e winload.efi error.
  
• original 512GB drive won't boot with a similar error, even if I move it from the JMicron USB3 adapter into the M.2_2 slot
  
• In the JMicron USB3 adapter the original 512GB drive also gives this error when attempting to boot from it on another computer. This is the hint for me that booting the working SSD from the USB3 adapter is probably bad, and also that this may have caused my clonezilla session to perform a bad clone.
  
• Booting the 4TB drive to boot to Windows 11 still works. I am so far trying to avoid physically removing this drive from M.2_1 slot because I want to keep its thermal pad intact.
  

My hope is that if I do put the original 512GB drive back in the M.2_1 slot that it might start to work again. I cannot fathom what the Win11 install or Clonezilla session could have possibly done to damage the contents of the 512GB drive.

 

NVME SSD

The drive is a wds500g2x0C. It is even on the QVL of the motherboard.

 

replacing C: with larger M.2 NVme drive and move programs installed on D: to the new M.2 drive

I have a DELL Desktop Computer XPS XPS8920-7581SLV-PUS Intel Core i7 7th Gen 7700 desktop running Windows 10 Pro with the Toshiba 250 GB M.2 NVme drive as the C: drive and a 1TB hard disk as the D: drive. I have installed a couple of games and applications to the D: drive due to the size of the install files.

I am now planning to replace the Toshiba 250 GB M.2 drive with a Samsung 500 GB 970 EVO M.2 NVme drive.

The procedure I plan to use is to:

• clone the Toshiba drive to a new Western Digital SSD installed in a hard disk bay
  
• replace the Toshiba with the Samsung
  
• clone the new SSD back to the Samsung
  

At that point I should have a bootable C: on the Samsung NVme drive.

The next step would be to move the games and applications from the 1TB hard disk to the Samsung NVme drive since I now have the space for them.

However it is not really possible to just move installed applications due to all the Registry changes that would be needed.

The two applications are Visual Studio 2015 and 2017 (both Community Edition) and the games are World of Warcraft, Destiny 2, and Fallout 4 (the last being a Steam download).

So I am looking for advice on these changes.

Alternative approaches

It seems that I have a couple of options:

• clone the 1TB hard disk to the new SSD and just use the new SSD as D:
  
• uninstall the games and applications then reinstall them to the new C:
  
• create a D: partition on the new NVme drive and copy the installation folders there
  

The easiest approach would seem to be to clone the 1TB drive to the new SSD as D: and move on. However I would be missing out on the NVme goodness with the games as well as the Visual Studio programming environment.

The most straightforward approach would be to uninstall the games and applications from the 1TB hard disk and then reinstall them to the C: drive.

The applications are Visual Studio 2015 and Visual Studio 2017, both Community Edition. These would both be straightforward to uninstall from D: and reinstall to C:.

The games are World of Warcraft and Destiny 2 from Blizzard and Fallout 4 from Steam. These games will require long download time probably two or three days over my internet access. And I would have to start Fallout 4 all over again.

Concluding thoughts

Perhaps the best option would be to combine the first two options.

Since the Visual Studio uninstall and install would be fairly painless I could do that while leaving the games on the 1TB drive and then do the clone of the 1TB drive to the new SSD. Then at a later date I could move World of Warcraft and Destiny 2 over to the NVme drive.

I would think that working with Visual Studio would be easier and quicker from the NVme C: drive while the games would be quick and responsive enough if the game assets are on an SSD.